I live in Shetland and love to sew. Follow my blog to see the latest additions to my handmade wardrobe.

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Monthly Archives: February 2015

A problem I’ve recently stumbled upon is, what to do with scraps of fabric, which are too small to make into garments? Mostly mine are left over from completed projects, but more recently from a bag of remnants kindly donated to me by a good friend.

The PDF pattern was free and the instructions simple to follow. There was only one pattern piece, so this is a good instant gratification project.
I found the printouts slightly awkward to stick together neatly, but I got there in the end.

The fabric used for the clutch was originally an eiderdown from India, which my friend had used to make a large over the shoulder bag. I was gifted the remains. I adore the detail of the fabric and it was a perfect weight to give the clutch some structure. There was one issue with my chosen fabric, it was impossible to pattern match or achieve a symmetrical finish, due to the way it had been cut previously. Thankfully the pattern is quite busy, which stops it being too noticeable.

I omitted the interfacing, due to the weight of the fabric and lined it with felt. The self cover button is just for decoration, as the bag is closed using a snap fastener. I originally planned to do a button hole on my machine, but the layers of fabric wouldn’t fit under my presser foot.

Here’s the finished product, modelled by my sister. I would love to hear any tips for what to do with small pieces of material?

I recently travelled to India and struggled to find suitable clothing to pack from my wardrobe, which is suited to cold Shetland winters.

The look I was going for was, simple tunic tops with leggings and The Ultimate Shift Dress pattern from Sew Over It, proved the perfect pattern for the job.

I bought some lightweight cotton from the online Sew Over It fabric shop and set to work. The construction was simple and the fabric, easy to work with. The instructions were great, and easy to follow. The only change I made was to omit the facing, as I was running out of time to finish before the trip (actually finished about 5 minutes before I left for the plane). Instead of the facing I simply folded the raw neckline in on itself like a double folded hem and stitched in place. It seemed to work reasonably well, but next time I would include the facing for a neater finish.

I’m really happy with how it turned out and I love the fabric. The only downside is that the cotton creases easily, as you might have noticed in some of the photos.

This dress survived over 2 months in India and is still going strong. It proved an excellent dress for summer and I’m still wearing it now in the winter with big cardigans and opaque tights, definitely a versatile garment.